Mr. S got an EXCLUSIVE
interview last week with Slimm Cutta Calhoun and wanted to
give y'all the fat truth about his Aquemini Records debut "The Skinny."

WRITER'S NOTE: The tape I used to record this was pretty
messed up. Some of the conversation is intelligible,
other parts are not. Much of this typed transcript is
paraphrased. It's shorter than I would have liked,
but I did the best I could with the quality of the
tape.

Mr. S: Slimm? What's up? This is Mr. S from
RapReviews.com. How you doing?

Slimm Calhoun: Not bad, man, I'm just chillin.

Mr. S: Cool. Hold on a second while I get the recorder
ready.

Slimm: Aight.

Mr. S: Okay... first things first, when's the album
gonna drop?

Slimm: November 7. "The Skinny", in stores. You
know what the Skinny is, right?

Mr. S: Tell me.

Slimm: You don't know?

Mr. S: I know, man, but I want your definition for the
article.

"The Skinny is the scoop, you know? It's the
info, the word. That's what I'm doing with this album. I'm giving you the scoop.."

Slimm: The Skinny is the scoop, you know? It's the
info, the word. That's what I'm doing with this
album. I'm giving you the scoop on what's happening
'round here. I'm talking about everything, not just
one subject. I'm talking about reality here, every
aspect of life, you know?

Mr. S: Yeah, yeah. Allright, who did the production for
the album?

Slimm: Earthtone 3 - that's Andre, Big Boi and Mr. DJ
- did most of the tracks on here. Organized Noize did
one of the cuts. Cee-Lo. The Calhouns - my cousin
Lucky Calhoun helped me out on one of the tracks.

Mr. S: You gonna tour to promote the album?

Slimm: Yeah, we been doing some touring already,
actually. We were doing some shows down here in the
south-east the last few weeks. Went up to New York
last week. We're gonna be on the west coast in the
next few weeks. Gonna be in Miami. You know, we're
just trying to get some publicity for the album, get
the name out there.

Mr. S: Nice. What are some of the differences working
with OutKast and Mr. DJ as your record execs, instead
of for a big record company like, say, Def Jam or
LaFace records?

Slimm: It's a lot easier, you know? Because they're
artists, too. They know what it's like to be in there
actually making an album, they know how hard it is.
And they pretty much let me do my own thing. I got a
lot more freedom here than I would've most other
places. OutKast is real cool to work with, they're
just laid back. It's a good atmosphere to record in,
they let me be creative and do songs that have meaning
to me, and it allowed me just to have fun making
music.

Mr. S: Now, a lot of cats seem to mix you and Cool
Breeze up. Explain the difference between you as far
as style and any thing else.

"Cool Breeze is my cousin, Freddy Calhoun,
that's my cousin, so I think that's a big part of why people get us confused."

Slimm: Well Cool Breeze is my cousin, Freddy Calhoun,
that's my cousin, so I think that's a big part of why
people get us confused. But as far as style, I'd say
I'm a little more poetic, you know, talking about
concrete issues, and a little more laid back.

Mr. S: Yeah. Okay, a lot of southern artists seem to
have trouble getting exposure. I mean, you got like
Cool Breeze, Witchdoctor, Youngbloodz, all dropping
tight albums in the last year or so but none of them
have really blown up on the national scale. Why do
you think it's harder for someone from down south to
get credit nationwide than it is for someone from NY
or Cali?

Slimm: Well, I think part of it is that we got into
it a little later than the rest. Like if you look at
all the famous rappers from the 80's, almost all of
them came from the northeast or the west coast, so we
haven't really been on the national scene as long.
Another thing is that people tend to generalize about
music from the south. Besides OutKast and Goodie Mob,
most of the stuff people hear from the south is stuff
like Master P and Cash Money, and they think that's
all we're about. I think we're advancing, though. I
hope that with my album and OutKast's album, we can
take this thing to another level, and I think we will.
Reason I think that is because we're talking about
real, concrete issues that affect everyone; you don't
have to be from Atlanta to relate to what we're
talking about. I have friends from a lot of different
areas, not just down south. So I know what people go
through everywhere, and that helps me make music
that'll reach everyone. And we're not just making
this music to have something that just sounds good to
bump in your car - of course that's part of it - but
we also want it to have an impact on the listener.

Mr. S: Yeah, and speaking of that, what are your
thoughts on the current state of hip hop? It seems
like a lot of people in the game right now are just in
it to make money, not showing any creativity, and
doing it for the love of the art form.

"..if you make an album just to make money, you're
making it for the present, people aren't gonna remember it in the future."

Slimm: Yeah, well, there's always gonna be a degree
of that. Any time you have a business that generates
this much money, there's always gonna be people trying
to exploit it. But I think that there's a lot of good
in the industry right now. A lot of cats are making
their dough without using gimmicks. And gimmicks have
always been around, you had Kriss Kross and all that.
But if you make an album just to make money, you're
making it for the present, people aren't gonna
remember it in the future. But what we're trying to
do is make classics. That's one of the reasons OutKast
has such a strong fan base, is because their music
doesn't lose its edge. We want to make music that
your gonna enjoy 5 or 10 years from now, not just this
year.

Mr. S: When you first got into the game, which rappers
did you look up to the most?

Slimm: Run-D.M.C., LL, Eric B. and Rakim, EPMD, those
were some of my early favorites, and then later you
had 2Pac, Biggie, Jay-Z, OutKast.

Mr. S: Allright, if you could do a song with any 3
rappers, and one producer or producer group, like P.A.
or whatever, who would you choose?

Slimm: Besides Earthtone and the Dungeon Family?

Mr. S: Yeah.

Slimm: The producer would be Dr. Dre. And the
rappers would be... Jay-Z, Pac, and Biggie.

Mr. S: What's your favorite part of the music industry,
and what's your least favorite part?

"My least favorite part is just the business side, you
know? When it gets away from having fun and making music, to being corporate."

Slimm: My favorite part is the parties {*Slimm laughs*}.
My least favorite part is just the business side, you
know? When it gets away from having fun and making
music, to being corporate. But the parties, can't
have too much of that.